After Airlie Beach I headed on the bus again to Mission Beach. It's quite small here but really nice and tranquil. And, as the name suggests, there is a beach. I only came here to do a sky dive, as I was told it was the best place to do it in Australia. And boy it was amazing!! It was such an exhilarating experience and I got such a good view of the ocean, rainforest and beach. Not that I had much time or thought to take it in! I wasn't too scared of jumpin...

On Thurs 1st Oct I had my last day at work in Brisbane, and that night got a bus north to Airlie Beach. I arrived 18 hours later! Airlie Beach is quite nice though, and trips to the Whitsudays go from here. On Saturday I went on a sailing trip around the islands over 3 days and 2 nights. It was a proper sailing boat and we got to help out with setting the sails etc, and it was a party boat so full of other backpackers and had music going the whole time. It had to...

24th August 2009 Thursday night I flew down to Adelaide for my long weekend visiting Shell (an old friend from mini club at home) she has been working in Oz for over 2 years now so it was really good to catch up. On Friday I made my way around the city by myself, like a right proper tourist with a map and my camera out. The best way I can describe Adelaide is to compare it to Bristol. It is definitely the most English-like part of Australia I have been to so ...

17th August 2009 This weekend I went to Fraser Island which is the largest sand island in the world and the only place in the world that rainforest co-exists with sand. It's about a 4 hour drive up the coast from Brisbane, and a 10 min ferry ride across. The only way to get there and around the island is by 4x4 because since it is all sand there are no roads, not even any mud. It's the strangest thing to see rainforest growing out of sand!! We set off at 7am Sat...

5th August 2009 Friday 31st July: This morning we got up early for our day out to the Great Barrier Reef. Got some free brekky at the hostel (just toast but hey it was free) and made our way to the marina. Once we were on the boat and we were moving they warned us it was windy and the sea was rough and there were sea sickness tablets available and they had lots of sick bags if anyone needed one or a few. I’ve been travel sick plenty of times but never seasi...